Three Weeks
by Pharoah'sCat
Summary: In watching HC episodes, I am always struck by how happy John and Victoria are to see each. And how they aren't especially shy about showing it. And that is after only a few days apart. What if a separation went on for a bit longer?


_Author's note: I have been working on a couple of longer HC stories, but this short one just popped into my head and almost wrote itself, so I thought I would post it first. I hope you like it - Pharoah's Cat._

"Three Weeks"

Victoria waited impatiently for Mano to finish checking the buckboard.

"Tell me again, WHY you want to got to Tubac with me? Mano inquired as he adjusted the harness. "I don't recall there being any dress shops…or ANY shops in Tubac."

"Well, you are wrong. The general store there is the only place I can find gross grain ribbon for a dress I am making."

"I confess I do not know much about ribbons, but I believe the store in Tucson carries many varieties."

"But not the right color!" Victoria replied emphatically as Mano came around to help her into the buckboard.

Mano shook his head in resignation as he climbed in beside her. "Perhaps…but I do have a feeling you are not being totally honest" he teased. "But,"he added "I am sure John will be glad to see you." He slapped the reins over the horses. "Vamos."

Underway on the bumpy road, Victoria tried to relax; tried to respond to Mano's occasional remarks. But she couldn't. For her whole mind and even, it seemed, her body, was already in Tubac. Waiting. Waiting for John to step down from the stage from Kansas City.

A group of ranchers had chosen John to go to a meeting of Railroad executives in Kansas City where rail lines were being chosen for the Arizona territory. He has been gone three weeks. THREE WEEKS!

It was longer by far than she and John had ever been apart. And waiting had become her enemy; her tormentor. She missed him so much. More than she would have ever thought possible. In their bed most intensely of course, but in so many other ways. She missed his footfall as he came back to the ranch house. The sound of his voice as he called her name. They way he would run his hand lightly over her shoulders as she sat and worked on her sewing. She missed the way he drank his coffee and the way he looked as he barked orders at the hands; the way he puzzled over his chess board. The way he frowned over the ranch books and the way he smiled when she brought him coffee in his office.

Mio Dios, she even missed his smell. All the men, including John, sweated endlessly in the desert heat, (so did she, for that matter.),but somehow…to her… John's smell was so much him, it had become a welcome signpost of his presence. And his presence was so large, he took up so much room in her head and heart, that his absence left a void that she struggled to manage.

Before she had married John, when she lived at Rancho Montoya, she had, out of necessity, cultivated the art and the skill of being alone. She was good at it. When she was not traveling, or receiving the occasional visitor, her independent nature and strength of character served her well in the relative isolation of the Rancho. But since marrying John, she seemed to have lost those skills. And even if the trip to Tubac only shortened their time apart for a few hours it was worth it. Even if there would be no privacy to truly express the joy being back together, it was worth it. In a completely wonderful and irrational way, her heart and soul and body simply NEEDED to see him. Now. Or, at least, the closest approximation of 'now' she could manage with a hot, dusty and uncomfortable ride in a buckboard. '

At long last they pulled into Tubac. Mano escorted her to the general store and headed, naturally, to the local saloon.

Victoria looked around the dusty and sadly stocked little store. She couldn't have found any color of gross grain ribbon here in a million years. But no need for Mano to know that.

A very young man…just a boy really…was listlessly and ineffectually pushing a broom around the store.

"Excuse me!" She gave him her most winning smile. "The stage from Kansas City hasn't arrived yet has it?"

Startled, and more than a bit dazzled by Victoria, the boy stammered for quite a while, before blurting out, "Oh, no Ma'am. Not yet."

"Is it late? Is it usually on time?" Victoria inquired, covering up her own nervousness with another smile and a twirl of her parasol.

"Oh no…I mean yes…I mean no, ma'am." The boy blushed furiously. "I mean it's not late and it's usually on time. It should be coming in any minute now. Biggest thing that ever happens in this town is that stage arriving," he added a little sadly.

"Do you work in this store? Well of course, you do, I can see that. Do you own it…no of course not you are far too young. Is the owner your father? It must be very difficult to make a living in a store in such a small town."

The rapid fire questions had left Victoria out of breath and the young man utterly bewildered. In part of her mind, Victoria laughed to hear her own nervous excitement. But she couldn't help it. She was desperately pushing any thoughts of a delayed stage, or even worse, a stage that did not arrive at all to the furthest recesses of her mind. Being so close to seeing John had her strung as tightly as a violin string. And if he didn't arrive today, she thought she might truly…

Fortunately, she was rescued from such thoughts, and the boy was rescued from this slightly mad, if beautiful, woman by the unmistakable sounds of a stage arriving on Tubac's one street. She bolted from the store as if fired from a gun.

As the stage pulled to a stop, the door opened and a man with two young children made their way down the steps, with, what to Victoria, seemed agonizing slowness. Next a flashily dressed young man disembarked, pausing at the bottom of the steps as he took in the town's possibilities. It seemed to her he lingered for ages before finally claiming his suitcase and sauntering off.

"_What if he is not on the stage, she suddenly thought. What if he has missed it…or what if something had happened to him?!"_ She didn't think it was possible for her heart to pound any harder but it did.

Finally! There he was. Victoria's heart nearly stopped. John stepped down and turned back to help an elderly, but elegantly dressed woman down from the coach. He handed her off, with a tip of his hat, to a young man…probably her son…who came up to greet her.

Then everything seemed to happen at once. Victoria's heart resumed its gallop and at least she could breath again, but she was momentarily frozen.

John turned from the stage and saw her. His stern features opened, first in surprise, then in pure happiness. He took a step toward her, but before he could take a second step, she jumped down from the boardwalk and simply flew across the street into his arms.

_Privacy and politesse and propriety be damned,_ she thought as she kissed him with three weeks of built up passion and found the kiss returned with equal ardor. They stayed like that from much longer than decency allowed.

Mano, who had also heard the stage arrive, had left the saloon in time to see his sister's extraordinary, and yet somehow completely expected, leap into her husband's arms. As he strolled over to the couple, he passed the elegantly dressed woman and her son. The woman stopped him with a gloved hand on his arm.

"You must be Manolito." She said with a smile.

Mano tipped his hat, "Si, how did you know?"

"Oh, I heard a good deal about you, and a few others, on the trip here." She smiled again. "And that," she said, nodding toward John and Victoria who were ending their kiss, only to start another, "must be Victoria."

"Yes," Mano acknowledged.

"They are very lucky, are they not?" She said with a smile.

Mano could only agree. "Indeed. Very lucky." He tipped his hat again and resumed walking to the stage.

"_At least I can get down John's luggage," he thought to himself with a smile. "because, I really don't think he has remembered it." _


End file.
